Ice Fishing Lake of the Woods

After another hot sticky football practice, I started day dreaming about a Winter ice fishing trip. A group of friends and I (4 in total) are heading up to LOTW the second weekend in December out of Sportsman’s Lodge. I personally have not been there, but two of the group have and have been pleased.

I’m a river guy for ice and soft water, so this lake stuff is a little out of my element. I know there are a ton of variables given ice timing, weather, etc, but…

-Is fishing generally good on LOTW at this time for saugers and eyes?

-I generally only target eyes out of the boat. What type of basic tackle should I add to the ice arsenal? I’ve got a decent assortment for panfish and some limited ice walleye fishing on P4, but what’s most successful up there?

-Is there anything outside of the ordinary to bring that really makes things more convenient? We will be shuttled out each day onto the ice already.

The highs in the low 50s with a light frost each morning can come anytime now.

Buckshot spoons, rippin raps, rattle baits, gold, red, Pink, glow, set line/dead stick.

For timing, it’s one of the best windows.

You’ll want two deadstick/bobber setups and one active jigging rod.

Start with a bobber/deadstick and one active rod, if only the bobber/deadstick is getting hit then switch the active out with a second bobber/dead.

Don’t sell out on one presentation for the whole trip. One day deadsticks will be the ticket, the next active jigging will be killer.

You didn’t mention electronics (doesn’t sound like you ice fish a ton), but a graph or flasher is worth it’s weight in gold.

There’s a million options for presentations, but you cannot go wrong with the following:

Demons, bare hooks or gold jigs under a float with a shiner/fathead/rainbow/emerald, then a buckshot/Lindy flyer/chubby darter/salmo zipper/rippin rap for your active rod.

Bring a radio, food and beer

I’m not a fan of being dictated when I can fish.
With that said a dead stick typically out performs.
Early December can be awesome, and at times you cannot fish two lines because action is so fast and furious. It happens and it’s awesome!
Red hooks on dead stick, gold frosties with minnow head on jiggin rod.
and like B-man says radio, food, beer let me add flashlight to the list.

Sportsman has a great bar/nightlife.

Wheeler’s Point in the winter is truly a Fisherman’s Mecca!

First of all I’m totally jealous.

So…LOTW is most always good for ice fishing, you will catch fish. I wouldn’t overthink much about exact tactics, bait, lure colors, sizes as you’ll find out when you get there what works. If you’re over fish (and likely you will be) and they’re active, most anything you drop down will catch fish. Probably a lot of saugers too. I’m sure your fishing buddies will help with presentations once you’re out there.

I have been to Sportsman’s Lodge in August and it is a fun place. Good restaurant and many locals and guests frequent the bar so it will be “lively” if you choose to stop in for a nightcap.

Sounds like it will be a fun time, don’t worry too much about the fish…enjoy the experience.

1) Jigging rod
2) Deadstick rod
3) About a thousand Busch lites.

Sounds like a good weekend….

A thousand?

What a lightweight!

I will often set my deadstick 2 feet off bottom and jig between 1 and 10 feet off bottom, call them in, further off the bottom, more active they are. Always real up to a mark.

Thanks for the pointers. I ice fish a ton on Pool 4, but mainly just for panfish until I’m back in the boat. I’ve got a flasher, k drill, tipdowns, and all the panfishing gear a guy could want…but the walleye tackle is minimal. When I want eyes on P4, we hook up to the boat

I’ll pay the local bait shop a visit here and throw in a few of the things mentioned. I hope the weather for travel to and from is cooperative. The crew I’m going with has never turned down an opportunity to check out the local nightlife

Great advice already given, Sportsmens is top notch so they will have you on a good spot and give you any up to date advice they have. Definitely have set lines and jigs and my personal favorite jig up there is a red buckshot, but sometimes Chubby Darters/Rippin Raps out perform jigs. Sportsmens has a great restaurant and bar area too, so I’m sure you guys will have a blast!

Matt Moen wrote:

1) Jigging rod
2) Deadstick rod
3) About a thousand Busch lites.

Sounds like a good weekend….

If you end up running two deadsticks, make sure to up the number of Latte’s to at least 1500. Watching bobbers increases beer intake exponentially.

Flasher is critical up there IMO. And keep a close eye on it, a lot of fish come in so close to the bottom you will hardly notice them. Get them to follow you up a few feet and your in business.

Also keep a close eye out for suspended fish moving through. Some of our biggest and most aggressive fish will come through like half way down. Isn’t a super common occurrence, but you’d definitely miss them without a flasher.

Red Lindy Rattln’ flyer is always a good bet up there for us. I think it’s the 3/16th ounce size that I like best.

Like what most people have said, anything gold, pink or red. We had good luck with red glow as well. We went in mid February and had our bobber rods set about 6 inches off the bottom, and then jigged in the other hole. It seemed like every 30 minutes a new school would come through and you would get a few bites. We were told by one of the guides to just keep bringing the lure up if the fish were not hammering it. Some of the fish we caught we had 10 feet off the bottom.

As previously mentioned flashers are a good idea and if you see a mark high reel up to it, those were typically very aggressive fish. I am hoping to head up this winter again.

That’s a great time to be up there. You might want to also bring a beer drinking guzzler hat. My best hard water color up there has always been gold with glow pink/red on it.